Geisteswissenschaften International  Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Geisteswissenschaften International is a translation funding programm for German works in the humanities and social sciences and supports innovative works by financing their translation into English. That gives these books and thoughts the chance to travel and be recognized by the international scholarly community.

Methods of critical theory and comperative research in the humanities require use of language and knowledge of tradition of thought. Therefore, even scholars who are excellent in English often write their works in their native languages.

The program is designed to provide the guidance and the support English speaking publishers need in order to discover promising new authors and exciting new approaches th the big questions.

Twice a year German publishers can submit publications from the fields of humanities and social sciences. All books chosen need to be picked up by English language publishers. Geisteswissenschaften International grants full translation costs for these English language publications.

The award amount is determined by each individual case and the actual translation costs. An independent selection committee select the works to be funded.

In every round of selection the jury pionts out one outstanding title and puts it into shining spotlights. Usually these books are still to be discovered by an English speaking publisher and usually they come from a scholars that is not yet well-known in the global community of academic research. In these cases the prize Geisteswissenschaften International is meant to inform the international academic world of a gem in the field of humanities and social schiences - besides covering translation costs.